"Setting Off" Song

aka: Setting Out Song

Follow the rainbow over the stream
Follow the fellow who follows a dream
Follow, follow, follow, follow
Follow the yellow brick road

"Into the woods, to get the thing
That makes it worth the journeying..."

— Chorus, Into the Woods, "Prologue"

The characters in the story are all rearing and ready to go! They need something to keep their spirits up, something to heighten the moment: A MUSICAL NUMBER! This is the number that everyone sings when they set off on their adventure. A "let's get ready and go" kind of number. Something jaunty and fun.

Often crosses over with the "I Want" Song. Compare Wanderlust Song.

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Examples:

Film — Animation

• An American Tail:
  • "Never Say Never", which doubles as a Pep-Talk Song.
  • An American Tail: Fievel Goes West: "Way Out West".
• Anastasia: "Journey to the Past".
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire: Non-musical example: "The Submarine", especially when we see the Ulysses finally descend into the ocean.
• The Brave Little Toaster: "City of Light".
• Brother Bear: "On My Way" by Phil Collins.
• The Chipmunk Adventure: "We're Off to See the World".
• Dinosaur: Non-musical example: "Across the Desert".
• A Goofy Movie: "On the Open Road".
• Hercules: "Go the Distance" starts off as an "I Want" Song before turning into this.
• The Hobbit: "The Greatest Adventure" as Bilbo spends his last night at home before embarking on the journey.
• The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration: "Adventuring".
• Little Golden Book Land: "Get Up and Go".
• Melody Time: "The Apple Song"
• Moana: "How Far I'll Go".
• Mulan: "A Girl Worth Fighting For".
• Peter Pan: "Second Star to the Right" and "Following the Leader".
• Pinocchio: "Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee".
• Pocahontas: "The Virginia Company" and its reprise.
• Pooh's Grand Adventure: Owl sings "Adventure Is a Wonderful Thing" to the gang before sending them out on their trip, a cheerful song about all the dangers that they will face and how there's little chance that they'll come home.
• The Princess and the Frog: "Gonna Take You There".
• Recess: School's Out: "Born To Be Wild" plays in the background as T.J. and Becky go to pick the gang up from their camps.
• The Rescuers: "Tomorrow Is Another Day", by Shelby Flint.
• The Road to El Dorado: "On the Trail We Blaze".
• Shrek: "I'm On My Way" by The Proclaimers.
• The Singing Marine: "The Song of the Marines".
• Tangled: The reprise of "When Will My Life Begin?"
• The Three Caballeros: "Have You Been to Bahia?"
• Treasure Planet: Non-musical example: "To the Spaceport" and "The Launch".
• Wakko's Wish has "The Wishing Star", which is about the Warners leaving town to find the Wishing Star. Of course, their song causes the rest of Acme Falls to learn about the Star, provoking a race to claim the Wish.
• Yellow Submarine: "All Together Now".

Film — Live-Action

• 101 Dalmatians (1996): Non-musical example: "Rescue". It's such a popular piece from the movie that Disney re-used it for the VHS trailer of Sleeping Beauty and the theatrical trailer of Doug's 1st Movie.
• Big Bird in Japan: "Off to Kyoto". It even gives a Shout-Out to Wizard of Oz.
• Harriet: "Goodbye Song" is a rare Real Life example. Enslaved people about to run away from their captors often sang songs to their loved ones as a coded farewell, and the film uses the actual song that Harriet Tubman sang to her family.
• The Lord of the Rings has a few:
  • "The Road Goes Ever On", which also appears in the book.
  • "A Walking Song", which appears in the book and is adapted as Pippin's song "The Edge of Night" in the movies. An unusual example in that it isn't sung while setting off, though by subject matter it is a setting-off song.
• The Muppet Movie: "Movin' Right Along".
• Muppet Treasure Island: "Sailing For Adventure".
• Road to Morocco: "(We're Off on the) Road to Morocco".
• Summer Holiday: "Summer Holiday", which acts more as an unhelpful narrator than this trope, since it'd been established earlier (the song begins with "We're all going on a summer holiday..." yet it appears about ten minutes into the movie after the characters decide to do so).
• Teacher's Pet: "A Whole Bunch of World".
• The Wizard of Oz: "We're Off to See the Wizard" is probably the most famous example.

Literature

• The Lord of the Rings: When setting off from the Shire, Bilbo sings a stanza of "The Road Goes Ever On", about following the road away from home and being drawn into the wider world and towards an unknown destination. Later, when setting out himself, Frodo speaks the same stanza but replaces the line "Pursuing it with eager feet" with "Pursuing it with weary feet", reflecting his uncertainty about the journey he is setting off on.

Live-Action TV

• Galavant has "Hero's Journey", where Galavant, Sid, and Isabella set off on their quest to take back Isabella's kingdom from King Richard. Though Galavant is confident he'll succeed in his mission, his companions are unsure of what his plan even is.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Nori asks Poppy to sing a walking song called This Wandering Day, to animate the spirits and make their migration to the Grove easier.
• The Young Ones: In the last episode, the housemates sing this while on the bus they stole after robbing the bank, as a reference to Cliff Richard and the film Summer Holiday. Too bad they drive over a cliff, and the bus explodes.

Podcasts

• Hit The Bricks, which takes place in the Land of Oz, has "Hit the Bricks". It's not quite as catchy as "We're Off to See the Wizard," but it's close — and it's set on the very same yellow brick road to boot.

Theatre

• Allegro: "One Foot, Other Foot", sung by the Greek Chorus when Joseph Taylor, Jr. first learns to walk. It symbolizes adventurousness and determination, and becomes his personal motto.
• Anastasia: From the Broadway adaptation:
  • Crossing over with Grief Song, Stay, I Pray You is about setting off, not on an adventure, but as refugees from a Soviet purge.
    "Coachman, hold the horses
    Let me say goodbye,
    Stay, I pray you
    Let me have a moment
    Let me say goodbye
    To bridge and river
    Forest and waterfall
    Orchard, sea, and sky
    Harsh and sweet and bitter to leave it all
    I'll bless my homeland till I die.''
  • "We'll Go From There" is a Played Straight example as Anya, Dmitri, and Vlad anticipate what awaits them in Paris on a train ride.
• The Book of Mormon: "Two By Two" for the missionaries.
• Both 'Climbing Song 1' and 'Climbing Song 2' from The Burnt Part Boys.
• Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto ends with one, "Beautiful Toscana". As Cesare leaves Pisa to go back to Rome, he reflects on his time in Tuscany and the events of the story.
• "Strike That, Reverse It", which kicks off the second act of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is a highly comic version of this as Willy Wonka rushes through greeting each of the Golden Ticket finders and having their guardians sign a confusing contract, all so the tour can proceed on schedule. He's in such a hurry to set off that the tune is also a Patter Song.
• "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" from Hello, Dolly!.
• "Into The Woods" from Into the Woods.
• "A Weekend In The Country" from A Little Night Music.
• An unproduced musical version of The Man Who Fell to Earth from the Turn of the Millennium had one, "Icarus Descending", as its opening number.
• The title song of Merrily We Roll Along uses the life-as-road-trip metaphor.
• "There's A Hill Beyond A Hill" from Music in the Air.
• "New York, New York" from On the Town.
• "I'm On My Way" from Paint Your Wagon introduces the various Forty Niners all bound for Rumson Creek.
• "Addison's Trip (I'm On My Way)" from Road Show.
• 'Chop To The Top' and 'Hero Is My Middle Name' from The SpongeBob Musical.
• "Right" from Theyre Playing My Song. This has a double meaning since it's sung by the two main characters as they drive to a country retreat for their first date: they're not only on the road, they're starting a relationship.
• "Godspeed Titanic" from Titanic.
• "Gotta Get Back to Hogwarts" from A Very Potter Musical.
• "On My Way" from Violet.
• "The Road Goes On" from the stage adaptation of The Lord of the Rings

Western Animation

• In the last episode of The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, there's a song called "Adventuring We Go" about the gang getting ready to go on a new adventure and what they might encounter.
• In "The Amazing World of Gumball" episode, "The Origins", Darwin sings this type of song as he sets off on his journey to find Gumball in Part 2.
• The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! has the "Traveling Song", sung by the Cat, Nick, and Sally as they are flying in the Thingamajigger to whatever location the episode is taking place. It uses the same footage every episode, with their clothes changing to fit the situation, and the third verse is always different to relate to whatever the kids are going to do. It was reanimated and shortened in the third season and ends after the second verse.
• The "Travel Song" from Dora the Explorer is about Dora and Boots getting ready to travel to their destination.
• "Back To You" from the I ♡ Arlo Season 1 finale, "The Uncondemning".
• "Apples to the Core" from the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Pinkie Apple Pie".
• The title song of the Steven Universe episode "On the Run".
  "It's time to get moving, time for us to have some fun."
• "Next Stop Anywhere" from the Season 2 premiere of Tangled: The Series.

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